


On Tour

by hgleiser



Series: Wrong Direction [4]
Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Music, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, M/M, Matchmaking, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-13
Updated: 2016-04-13
Packaged: 2018-06-01 23:23:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6540955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hgleiser/pseuds/hgleiser
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mark, Fernando, and the boys set off for New York City.  Mark can already tell it's going to be a long journey...</p><p>Props and champagne to L(and rosewater to K cause she's not legal yet, ha)for being the best betas a girl could ask for.  Rated teen for swearing and obscene amounts of fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On Tour

"Get off me!" Lewis laughed and shoved Jenson away from him while fumbling for the seatbelt buckle which in turn shoved Sebastian rather uncomfortably into the door on the opposite side. "Go sit on Seb!"

Sebastian pushed Jenson back toward Lewis and grinned. "I don't want him. You take him."

Jenson wiggled his eyebrows, his wicked grin managing to be even bigger than Sebastian's, and put his arms around Lewis's and Sebastian's shoulders. "Now, now, boys, let's not fight. Plenty to go round."

"Not interested." Nico looked up from the sudoku puzzle on his phone screen. "Six numbers solved and now I'm stuck."

Kimi peered over his shoulder then pointed at the upper left hand corner. "Five."

"You sure?"

"Is not hard."

Nico entered five into the square, smiling when it allowed him to complete enough moves to solve one of the three by three squares. "Hey, thanks!"

Kimi gave a halfhearted smile in return before putting his sunglasses on and stretching out with his cheek pressed against the window. "Wake me when we get to New York."

Fernando turned around in the passenger seat up front and gave them all a quick once-over. "Everyone is ready, yes? Especially Kimi."

Jenson glanced over his shoulder at the Finn, who had already begun to drift off judging by his slightly parted lips and slow, almost imperceptible breathing. "How does he do that?"

Mark adjusted the rearview mirror and buckled himself in. "Bit of advice, mate. Never look a gift horse in the mouth and never try to discover the secrets of the Finnish."

"I'll keep that in mind. Fernando?"

"Si, Jenson?"

"Now can I say it?"

"We have not left the house."

Jenson attempted his best puppy-eyed pleading look. "We almost have. C'mon, we're practically going on holiday! I wanted to have fun."

Sebastian giggled. "And he's older than me according to his passport but now I'm not so sure."

"Seb, _everyone_ is older than you." Lewis reached back to move Jenson's arm away from him. "Get off me, man. And I've seen girls who haven't made it to high school yet tell you they fancy you."

"They're nice and they give me hugs. I don't mind."

Jenson quirked an eyebrow. "Not a hugger, he said."

"The allergy." Sebastian faked a loud sneeze that made both of them laugh. "It comes and goes."

"You should see a doctor about that. Could be treatable, you never know."

"Maybe I'll look into it."

"Rule number one of this trip, no excessive flirting." Mark started the car and slowly reversed out of the driveway. "Remember, Fernando and I have to live with all of you!"

"He started it!" Lewis, Jenson, and Sebastian cried.

"I'm sorry," Nico dryly added from the backseat, "Lewis is just too irresistible."

For what he thought was surely the first time in his life, Lewis felt himself blush all the way to the tips of his ears.

Fernando sighed wearily. "Is a good thing they are in a room far from mine," he murmured, sparing a thought as he usually did at times like these for poor Toto.  _Dios mio._

"You all right?" Mark asked.

"Will be fun once we get there but is going to be a long trip until then. Maybe I can sleep on the plane."

"I'll try to keep them to a dull roar for you, Fonz. Lions sleep a lot, right?"

Fernando chuckled. "Spanish ones, yes."

Mark had to resist the urge to reach over and ruffle Fernando's hair knowing full well that if he did the others, Jenson in particular, wouldn't let him live it down for at least the next year and using a typically personal nickname in front of them was treading enough of a thin line. He'd originally meant it as a gentle jab at the bushy beard and long, shaggy hair Fernando had had when they'd first met, but now that both had been trimmed significantly the name had stuck around for entirely different reasons. Everything about Fernando--his dark eyes, his mind, his overall approach to life--was best described as quiet intensity.

He thought back to when Toto had introduced them to each other at some awards show but couldn't remember which one, for if he was being honest with himself they'd become a blur of red carpets, statues, and champagne he was thankful he wasn't paying for. What remained crystal clear in his mind's eye, however, was Toto beaming at he and Fernando as he pressed a drink into each of their hands.

 

***

 

"Mark, this is Fernando Alonso. Fernando, this is Mark Webber. I think you two will find you have plenty in common." With that, the tall Austrian had promptly disappeared into the crowd of indistinguishable men in suits, leaving Mark to flounder through shop talk and small talk with whom he was sure was the most obscenely handsome man he'd ever laid eyes on.

"So you...er...come here and watch the circus often?" he'd quipped after taking a large swig of champagne to steel his nerves.

Fernando had giggled softly, stood on tiptoe, and leaned in to where his lips were far too close to Mark's ear for him to be able to concentrate. "Si. These people, they are the clowns, yes?"

"More than you might realize." Another sip loosened his tongue. "Normally I don't drink this stuff. It goes to my head and before I know it I think I can sing as well as that group Toto manages...well, is nanny to to hear him talk."

"Why drink then? And is Wrong Direction."

_Because you're bloody gorgeous and it's the only thing I can do at the moment that doesn't involve getting lost in your eyes,_ he thought, having been caught off guard by the way Fernando's gaze never wavered as he listened.  _No booze, no conversation. That's the way parties work, isn't it?_

"That's them, yeah. He told me he's been trying to find someone he feels comfortable with to take over so he can retire to Switzerland with his wife to manage his blood pressure but surely these boys can't be much more trouble than my past clients. Believe me, mate, hell hath no fury like a one-hit wonder whose label dropped them."

"I read about them," Fernando sipped his drink. "The worst they do is pillow fight and play jokes. Cannot be that difficult to follow them around the world."

"You think either of us is up for the challenge?"

"Yes." Mark's heart skipped a beat at the sheer determination in Fernando's voice.  _Handsome, funny, and driven. Just my type...er, luck._ "Except I think both of us."

"Business partners?"

Fernando had nodded and flashed Mark a mischievous grin. "Is a two-person job just in case."

Mark had held out his hand for Fernando to shake, the warmth of the other man's brief touch lingering for several seconds afterward. "We've got ourselves a deal. Where's Toto? We're going in for an interview."

 

***

 

"Fernando..." Jenson's voice rang out, suddenly dragging Mark back into the present moment. "We're on the motorway. Can I say it yet?"

"Why is every time we travel?"

"Why not?" Jenson cleared his throat. "And now...allons-y, Alonso!"

Mark stifled a laugh at Fernando, who heaved a long-suffering sigh and in his opinion looked exceedingly adorable when at his most indignant. "Sorry, Fonz, it was a good joke."

"From one of the best shows ever," Lewis piped up, making his voice as monotone as possible. "Exterminate!"

Nico finished his sudoku puzzle and laughed, his nose scrunching as he did so. "My best friend the robot."

"They're Daleks, man. Used to scare me when I was a kid until I figured out their arms were giant toilet plungers."

Sebastian stared at the patch of cloudless blue sky visible through the sunroof and a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. "You know..."

"Brace yourselves, everyone," Jenson hid his face in his hands. "Pun incoming in three...two..one..."

"Lewis, that must have been very draining for you to watch."

Lewis groaned as Fernando took the pillow from behind his head and tossed it back, hitting Sebastian square in the nose. "Was necessary!"

Mark high-fived Fernando. "You deserved it, Seb."

"You cannot make puns so easily in German. The language is usually too specific for wordplay. Besides, in sports I'm not as good at football as I am at annoying Lewis."

Jenson and Nico snickered.

"Hey!" Lewis picked up the pillow and smacked Sebastian's arm. "Why me?"

Sebastian shrugged, having turned his attention to Jenson holding his phone at arm's length and giving the screen a cheesy grin. "I think a better picture would be..." He placed two fingers behind Jenson's head to give him rabbit ears then reached over and tapped the screen while his face was partially visible in the shot. "This. What do you think?"

_I think I'm never deleting it_ .

"I like it."

"I don't understand why people take pictures of themselves but I couldn't resist. Now you've taken a picture of half of me as well."

"Seb, if there were still phone boxes on every street you wouldn't have an iPhone in your pocket, would you?"

Sebastian shook his head. "I only use it for work anyway."

Jenson laughed, remembering the last time he'd dealt with a stuck-in-the-past Sebastian at a garage. He'd been unwilling to give up on his beloved Volkswagen people carrier despite needing a new engine and hundreds of pounds in additional repairs until inspiration had struck Jenson in the form of a tiny diecast Ferrari a child had left behind in the waiting area.

"There's that." He gestured in the direction of the garage where the people carrier sat several feet off the ground on its hydraulic lift like a memorial statue then held up the Ferrari. "And then there's this."

"A Ferrari California, yes."

Jenson's eyes lit up as he ran his fingertip over the curves of the car. "You could have one..."

Sebastian shrugged. "She won't be my Suzie."

"Which you named because you said it sounded a bit bitchy and this is what happens."

"So she's a bit fickle. I'll have her repaired and she'll run as well as she did before."

"Come on, you know you want a Ferrari. Unless you want to be as undeniably cool as Lewis and I and get a McLaren..." Jenson laughed and placed the car in Sebastian's palm. "I saw one of these in Milan once. It's very beautiful, very fast, and red suits you. She could have a better name as well like..."

"Kinky Kylie." Sebastian held the car at eye level and examined the rear of it. "Got a nice back end, you know, so..."

Jenson snickered and gave Sebastian's ear a gentle tug. "You're less innocent than you let on! Want to take Suzie off life support and say goodbye before we search for the elusive Kylie?"

"Yeah. She's been good to me but it's time."

Half an hour later, after Sebastian had explained to the mechanic he no longer felt it was financially wise to repair and replace over and over, he and Jenson watched Suzie being loaded onto a tow truck bound for her new home in a junkyard for salvaging parts.

"All right?" Jenson patted Sebastian's upper arm. "Fancy some ice cream for the pain?"

"Sounds like a nice way to mourn."

 

***

"What's so funny?"

Jenson held up one finger as a signal to wait until he'd caught his breath once again. "The last time you tried to take the old-fashioned view of things you bought a Ferrari. Why, I wouldn't be surprised if you turned up within a week with an augmented reality device years ahead of Apple's latest toy."

"As long as you don't bring the record player into this."

Fernando turned around in his seat. "Is my record player he borrows to listen to the Beatles."

"Hipster," Mark teased. "Doesn't sound different from the cassettes I had growing up."

"Fernando uses more emoji than Lewis uses hashtags!" Nico, having given up on a second sudoku puzzle, put his phone away and looked up to see his best friend sticking his tongue out at him. "I follow you on Instagram and Fernando on Twitter. Don't deny it."

"You have a point." Lewis took a sip of his water bottle. "What do half those tweets mean, Fernando?"

Fernando turned away to face the front once again, a gleam in his eye that Mark noticed instantly when he winked at him. "Is a secret among band managers."

"Of  _course_ it is," Jenson muttered. "Just you two wait until we get to New York..."

Mark arched one eyebrow. "What was that, Jense?"

Sebastian and Lewis forced themselves to look straight ahead to avoid getting the giggles and giving their plans away. Nico covered his mouth with one hand.

"Oh...nothing. I'm really looking forward to this trip, is all. Yeah, that's it. Should be fun."

"Not long until we reach Heathrow." Mark glanced in the rearview mirror and chuckled at the still very much passed out Kimi. "Would someone mind waking Sleeping Beauty?"

"He's not my type," Nico dryly replied.

Fernando leaned toward Mark as much as he could. "Is not the princess who does the kissing, you know."

Mark took off his sunglasses to see the signs indicating which junction he needed to exit on for the airport and handed them to Fernando, who placed them in his shirt pocket. "Thanks, Fonz."

"Anytime."

"Oh, to have the sort of relationship you two have," Lewis sighed. "It's sweet."

"Awwwwwww," Jenson, Nico, and Sebastian added in unison.

Mark groaned. "Enough, boys. I still have to spend the next sixteen hours with all of you on a plane."

_This might be the longest sixteen hours of my life._

Having successfully woken Kimi, unloaded and checked around a dozen suitcases, and gotten all five members of Wrong Direction through security to their gate with a throng of teenage fans trailing them, they sat in a row at the gate to catch their breath for a few precious minutes before their boarding call.

"The girl with red hair in the black shirt, did you see her?" Fernando asked Mark, who was skimming through the latest issue of  _F1 Racing_ he'd brought in his carry-on. "She was maybe eighteen and she was there to meet  _me._ How?"

"You're not a bad looking guy, mate." Mark held the magazine up to keep out Sebastian's prying eyes and smiled. "I'd choose you over that lot."

Kimi shot Mark a joking glare. "You break my heart."

Fernando quickly picked up the newspaper on his lap to hide his deep red blush, half wishing Mark would stop saying things that made his head swim and his stomach fill with butterflies and half wanting him to never stop for a second.  _Te amo mucho._

"Sorry, Kimi, but this one's mine."

Fernando's face, wearing a wide smile, slowly appeared from behind the pages of the sport section. "Am spoken for, maybe I should tell the redhead." 

"Boarding of first class passengers will now begin for British Airways flight 6515 with service to New York City," a woman announced over the tannoy.

"Not enough time now." Mark placed the magazine back in his bag then stood up. "And we're off."

The seven of them gathered up their belongings and joined the queue of passengers, quickly signing autographs for a group of giggly preteens who couldn't keep their eyes off Lewis and Nico.

"Never changes," said Jenson. "They don't know I make a better cup of tea than either of them."

"Maybe one day someone will fall in love with you based on your ways with a mug of oolong," Sebastian snickered at the somewhat naughty sounding word. "I like tea well enough."

Nico nudged Sebastian's lower back once the queue began to inch forward. "Come on, you two can sit together on the plane and keep flirting."

Lewis laughed and nudged Nico in turn. "Are we sitting next to each other?"

"Of course. I call window seat!"

Kimi, bringing up the rear, smiled as he muttered to himself. "Kiss already, assholes."

They then had their boarding passes scanned and found their seats onboard with relatively little hassle except for Nico and Lewis jostling for the coveted window seat, which Nico won by tickling Lewis under the arm as he slid past and sat down.

"Victory is mine!" he crowed.

"Pillow fight when we get to New York." Lewis took off his sunglasses and perched them on top of his head. "It's on."

Behind them Sebastian buckled himself in and looked around at the other passengers. "Hmm, I spy something beginning with H." 

"I don't see any hats, which is the first thing that comes to mind. Lewis isn't wearing one today, so..." Jenson glanced at the rows of passengers just beyond the curtain that separated them from economy class. "I'm stumped for the moment."

Sebastian pointed out the window. "Himmel. It's German for sky."

"What?! You didn't say we were playing in more than one language. You cheated."

"You didn't say we weren't. Anyway, I spy something beginning with S. Not sky."

"Um..." Jenson scratched his chin while scanning the area for a possible answer. "Shoe?"

"Close enough. I was thinking Schuh, which is shoe in German." Sebastian looked pleased with himself. "Want to try again?"

"My turn this time. I spy something beginning with B."

Across the aisle from them, Fernando was settled into his seat and pushing his armrest up out of the way so he could comfortably rest against Mark, whose arm was already wrapped around his shoulders. "Plenty of time for you to rest, Fonz. I take it you didn't get much sleep last night?"

Fernando yawned. "Tried to fall asleep and had a lot on my mind."  _Mostly you,_ he thought.  _Wanted your arms around me. Your face across from mine. Your kisses. Anything from you._

"Whatever it was that was bothering you, you don't have to let it now. Soon as we take off you're good to go."

_Was not bothering me, that much is for sure._ Fernando rested his head on Mark's shoulder and closed his eyes. "Gracias."

"You're welcome, mate." He watched as sleep began to make the tension slip away from Fernando's body, leaving him gently pressed against his side with his head tucked into the crook of Mark's neck. "Now get some rest. You deserve it." Thinking they were safely out of anyone's line of sight, he combed his fingers through Fernando's soft, dark hair. "You've taken up a lot of space in my heart lately," he whispered. "Small wonder it hasn't burst yet."

Sebastian craned his neck, following Jenson's gaze to where Mark and Fernando were, and nodded in approval. "I think I see it. Boyfriends."

Jenson high-fived him. "Yep! Aren't they sweet? If we have anything to do with it, we'll be seeing plenty more once we land..."

 


End file.
